Hemingway Wasn't All Wrong

[robertanasi]

The rich were dull and they drank too much, or they played too much backgammon. They were dull and they were
repetitious. He remembered poor Julian and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that
began, "The rich are very different from you and me." And how someone had said to Julian, "Yes, they
have more money."

Comments

[anonymous]

Always hated Hemingway (to be honest I hadn't read him) until last week when I picked up The Old Man and the Sea.

Kenneth Patchen described him as a bull with scrawny little legs (or something to that effect).

Just moved on to Chekhov and damn that guy is funny.

Al in Vancouver

Hemingway (or Gemingway, as they say in Russia)

[robertanasi]

The best Hemingway is the first novel, the first book of stories, and then maybe the next ten stories. After that, he starts to go downhill, although Farewell to Arms is not bad. But that first burst from him, influenced as it was by Stein, is a major accomplishment. Almost flawless.

Hemingway

[ext_97908]

His style, so understated and terse, is beautiful. He never wastes any words which can make a lot of other authors boring and difficult to read.

It seems like it would be an easy way to write, but I doubt anyone has been able to master it quite like the old man.

Re: Hemingway

[robertanasi]

I'd agree about his early work. It's odd to see how in his later stuff, that minimalism becomes self-satisfied bloviation.